Dr. Vin Gupta

And that's where we had tens of thousands of cases of hepatitis B transmission to baby.

A huge majority of those then progress on to chronic liver disease, which is devastating.

And with this new shift to giving everybody a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine, one dose, we've seen those numbers trickle down to almost unrecognizable.

Is that right?

Can you speak to that?

Am I capturing that correctly?

Some, again, just going back to how this might be received by the public.

Some might say, well, okay, we're not going to get the birth dose after an informed conversation or we'll take a negative test in the first trimester, whatever it may be, as reassuring enough and wait potentially for that two-month or to get it, say, at a later point, maybe two months after birth.

What's the worry with getting exposed, not knowing it, if you're a baby, and then getting the hepatitis B dose, say, at a later point, maybe two months after birth?

What's the concern there?

I want you to restate this.

So there is no safety data that you're aware of as the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics that exists or no, there is no new medical information or research study that calls into question the safety of that birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine.

Is that right?

I think Dr. Cressley, I say this as a clinician, and I think I speak for a lot of fellow clinicians and perhaps some pediatricians.

When I say, how is this possible in a profession where quality and safety are paramount, do no harm, where if something were to happen,

that we are bound legally in many ways.

There's constraints put on us as physicians to do no harm.

If we do harm and it's volitional, there's repercussions.

How are there no repercussions to this type of policy?

I'm wondering from your perspective, is there anything you can share from AAP's perspective on the way forward here?